Device for the dosing of gaseous and/or vaporous matters

ABSTRACT

Apparatus for dosing gaseous and/or vaporous substances An apparatus for dosing gaseous and/or vaporous substances, in particular for generating varying scents, includes a multitude of packaged storage containers ( 1 ) from which different gases and/or vapors are driven out by a carrier medium. On their inlet sides, the storage containers are connected to a common carrier medium manifold ( 13 ) via a shut-off device ( 4 ) assigned to each storage container that can be actuated, and on their outlet sides to a joint homogenization chamber ( 8 ). Both the carrier medium manifold and the homogenization chamber are connected to a carrier medium source using a regulating valve ( 5, 9 ). Check valves ( 6, 7 ) are integrated in the gas passages to the storage container and from the storage container to the homogenization chamber. A dosing apparatus designed based on this principle is characterized by low space requirements and materially separate volume flows that can be exactly timed and dosed.

This invention relates to an apparatus for dosing gaseous and/orvaporous substances, particularly odorous substances, with at least onestorage container in which the gas to be dosed is provided and which canbe connected to a carrier medium that flows through it and drives adefined gas volume out at defined intervals.

To simplify matters, when referring to gaseous substances, thesehereinafter shall include vapors.

DE 197 53 956 A1 describes a scent cartridge designed as a cylindricalhollow body that contains agents or scents bound by a carrier mediumbound by a carrier medium. By applying a timed and/or volume-controlledgas flow such as air, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, or inert gas to thecarrier material stored in the cylindrical storage container such asactivated carbon, silica gel, or aluminum oxide a predefined volume ofthe respective material can be driven out at a specific point in time.The substance driven out is a scent sent out to people to match specificvisual and/or acoustic impressions.

A known apparatus for delivering gaseous media, here in the form ofscents, is described in EP 0611476 B1 and comprises various carriers ofscents arranged on a roller-type magazine. The required scent carrier isloaded into a compressed air line at a junction by turning the rollermagazine to drive the scent out of the carrier material and transport itvia pipelines to the use area. While this apparatus is sophisticated andsusceptible to failure, it also fails to ensure accurate timing anddosing of the respective gas flow, accurate separation of subsequent gasflows, and fast switching from one gas flow to another. Despite anarrangement of several storage rollers, it seems difficult to mix two ormore substances and deliver them together. Tight sealing of theindividual gas storage containers constitutes another problem. Inaddition, the known apparatus requires too much space.

It is therefore the problem of the invention to provide an apparatus fordosing gaseous and vaporous substances produced in a storage containerthat requires little space and is able to exactly time and dose suchsubstances in fast succession while accurately separating subsequent gasstreams.

This problem is solved according to the invention by the apparatuscomprising the characteristics described in claim 1. The dependentclaims disclose further characteristics and advantageous improvements ofthe invention.

In other words, the inventive idea of this invention is to connect amultitude of storage containers in which the gas to be driven out anddosed is produced to a central distribution unit for the carrier mediumand to equip each storage container inlet with an upstream controllableshut-off element. This makes it possible to drive out accurately dosedvolumes of gas in fast succession and at defined intervals. On their gasoutlet sides, the storage containers are connected to a jointhomogenization chamber that is also directly connected with the carriermedium source and a discharge line. The gas/carrier medium mixtureintroduced to the homogenization chamber from the storage container ishomogenized and diluted by the separately introduced carrier mediumstream so that the respective gas can be discharged in full and its fullquantity arrives at its destination. As soon as the respective shut-offdevice in front of the storage container is closed and no more dosinggas flows into the homogenization chamber, the pure carrier medium canstill be supplied to it and flush it so that no residual gas from theprevious cycle is still in the chamber when the subsequent dosing cyclebegins. This allows fast and accurate exchange of gases withoutundesirable mixing of different gases. The homogenization chamber mayalso be used for intended mixing of different gases and for dosing suchgas mixtures. The gases in the storage container can be produced byvolatilizing the coating on a substrate or by reacting differentsubstances in the storage container, both with and without heating, andused for dosing gaseous or vaporous substances in general, and, in apreferred embodiment, for producing different scents, for example tosupport the plot in a motion picture.

In an advantageous improvement of the invention, the storage containersdesigned as pipe-shaped hollow bodies are arranged between a flatcarrier medium distributor plate and a homogenization chamber designedas a flat and even body. The carrier medium distributor plate comprisesparallel transverse ducts with individual gas outlets to which thestorage containers are connected and tightly sealed and that may beopened separately using shut-off facilities such as solenoid valves. Thetransverse ducts are connected by a joint longitudinal duct that isconnected to a carrier medium source. On their outlet sides, the storagecontainers are connected to a homogenization chamber that is alsoconnected to the carrier medium source. This design allows thearrangement, in parallel and at an offset, of a multitude of storagecontainers on very little space and to connect this arrangementsimultaneously to a carrier medium source and the homogenizationchamber. The space requirement of this apparatus is very small.

According to another important characteristic of the invention, the endsof the storage containers are sealed into recesses of receiving platesthat sit close to, and are sealed against, the carrier mediumdistributor plate and the homogenization chamber.

It is another important characteristic of the invention that the gaspassages into and out of the storage container are closed by one checkvalve each only, which is only opened by the open solenoid valve whencarrier medium is supplied. In this way, the storage containers arealways tightly sealed when no gas is driven out by the carrier medium.This allows exact dosing without any gas gushing out.

In an advantageous improvement of the invention, the carrier mediavolume flow is controlled using regulating valves, preferablyproportional-action valves.

In an embodiment of the invention, the storage containers areelastically mounted into a support plate. In this way, many storagecontainers can be combined in a block, which makes replacing emptystorage containers much easier.

Various inert gases can be used as carrier media. The use of fluids ascarrier media is conceivable.

Other characteristics that represent aspects of the invention can bederived from the description below of an embodiment of the apparatus forproducing different scents that accompany a feature presentation in amovie theater.

An embodiment of the invention is explained in greater detail below withreference to the figures. Wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a simplified block diagram of the operation of theapparatus according to the invention for selective dosing of various(here: two) gaseous substances;

FIG. 2 shows a partly sectional view of an apparatus designed accordingto the principle of operation shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a top view of a bottom receiving plate integrated in anapparatus according to FIG. 2 for connecting storage containers thatprovide the scents to a gaseous carrier medium; and

FIG. 4 shows a top view and a partially sectional side view of amounting plate as an assembly aid for a multitude of storage containers.

The principle of operation of the apparatus according to the inventionas shown in FIG. 1 is as follows: Storage containers 1 that consist ofglass or another suitable material and are shown as small glass tubes inthis embodiment are filled with a gas-forming agent 2, here with asubstrate that has a large surface area such as activated carbon,aluminum oxide, or silica gel. To simplify matters, the block diagramshows just two storage containers 1. A practical design may also includea multitude of storage containers 1 arranged next to each other torequire as little space as possible and providing different dosingmedia. A volatile substance to be dosed is adsorbed to the surface ofthe substrate. Alternatively, the storage container 1 may containsubstances as gas-forming agents 2 that react with each other to producea gas. The storage containers 1 that provide different gases are closedat both ends by a gas-permeable fixing element 3 that in this embodimentconsists of a porous synthetic material. The storage containers 1 areconnected on their inlet sides to a carrier medium source (not shown)via a check valve 2 and a controllable shut-off device 4 such as asolenoid valve, and via a first joint regulating valve 5 such as aproportional-action valve. Potential carrier media are gases such ascompressed air, helium, or nitrogen, or fluids such as water, oils,bases, etc. FIG. 1 shows the controllable shut-off elements 4 in theirclosed position. The check valves 6 and 7 are closed. As soon as one—oroptionally several—shut-off facilities are opened for a specific timebased on a predefined program, the carrier medium flows at the rate setby the regulating valve 5 via a first check valve 6 into or through thestorage container 1 and carries the dosing medium (gas or vapor)produced there or driven out of there via a second check valve 7connected to the outlet side of the storage container 1 into ahomogenization chamber 8. From a carrier medium source (not shown), acarrier medium is conducted via a second regulating valve 9 that may bea proportional-action valve or a manual valve into the homogenizationchamber 8. It is preferred that the carrier medium supplied to thehomogenization chamber 8 is identical with the carrier medium suppliedto the storage container 1. In the homogenization chamber 8, the exactlyset gas volume discharged from the storage container(s) in the time unitdefined by the shut-off device 4 is received by the carrier media streamsupplied via the second regulating valve 9, distributed and diluted init and subsequently directed into a room as a scent or agent or suppliedto a chemical process or a specific processing operation. If two or moregases are introduced into the homogenization chamber 8, this unitguarantees their intermixing, the gas or gas mixture to be dosed iscompletely discharged from the system, and dosing is accurate. This alsomeans that the homogenization chamber 8 and downstream pipework arealways well flushed so that no residues from the previous substance areabsorbed in the new gas stream. This is vital when specific scents oragents are conducted into a room such as a movie theater in whichvarious scents and mixtures of scents are to be produced in accordancewith the varying images shown. The additional carrier medium stream andthe regulating valve may be used to influence the intensity of therespective scent.

FIG. 2 shows such a scent-producing system for a movie theater that isused to produce different scents that must vary fast and in accordancewith the plot in a motion picture and any sudden changes of scene butremain clearly distinct. This gas dosing apparatus that produces scentsis designed in such a way that it can be installed in the narrowestspaces such as in the arm rest of a viewer's seat in a movie theater,theater, and the like and can reproduce a great range of close-to-lifearomas or scents, from pleasant forest, moss, hay, or flower scents,various food scents, to fire, exhaust fume and other unpleasant smellsin fast succession.

According to FIG. 2, the scent-producing module in this embodimentincludes a control unit 10 that is located between a base plate 11 and acarrier medium distributor plate 13 held at a spacing from the baseplate by support columns 12, and a scent-producing unit 14 that mainlyconsists of a multitude of tube-shaped storage containers 1 compactlyarranged in rows and columns and offset from each other on the carriermedium distributor plate 13, the homogenization chamber 8 beingconnected to the outlet sides of each of them.

Transverse ducts 15 run in parallel inside the carrier mediumdistributor plate 13 and are connected by a longitudinal duct 16. Acarrier medium source (not shown) is connected to the longitudinal duct16 via a first regulating valve (e.g. a proportional-action valve) 5.The carrier medium flows from a transverse duct 15 through the shut-offdevice (solenoid valve) 4 shown as a dashed line behind the regulatingvalves in FIG. 2, a gas passage 13 a, a mushroom-shaped seal 18 held ina tapped hole 17 and comprising a central through hole, and two valveholes 19 in a first (bottom) receiving plate 20 that holds the bottomend of the storage container 1 into the storage container(s) 1. Thegenerally conical heads of the mushroom-shaped seals 19 engage in anaccordingly shaped recess 21 in the receiving plate 20, ensuring preciseseating and tight sealing when the receiving plate 20 is mounted to thecarrier medium distributor plate 13. The valve holes 19 formed in thefirst receiving plate 20 are closed by a spring-loaded flap 22 of thefirst check valve 6 that releases the valve holes 19 and thus allows theentry of the carrier medium into the respective storage container 1 whenthe shut-off element 4 is open. The tube-shaped storage container 1 isseated with its bottom open side in a cylindrical recess 23 in thereceiving plate 20 on a ring gasket 24. On the opposite side, the endsection of the storage container 1 is also held in a recess 25 of asecond, upper receiving plate 26. A plate section 29, separate in thisembodiment, with second valve holes 30 that are closed by a second flap31 of the second check valve 7 is located between ring gaskets 27 and28. The first and second check valves 6 and 7 are formed using the firstand second valve holes 19 and 30 as well as the associated first andsecond valve plates 22 and 31 and ensure transport of the carrier mediumthat drives out the scents in one direction of flow while closing thecontainer off in all other directions. The gas-forming agent 2 in thetube-shaped storage container 1 is silica gel to the surface of whichdifferent scents are adsorbed in different storage containers 1. Thescent-coated substrate is held in the storage containers 1 by a fixingelement 3 that is a porous PE frit in this embodiment.

The second (upper) receiving plate 26 is located behind thehomogenization chamber 8 in the direction of flow of the scent-chargedcarrier medium. The homogenization chamber 8 is formed according to thisembodiment of a bottom plate 32, a cover plate 33, and a seal 34 thatruns around the perimeter along the rims of the bottom and cover plates.The bottom plate 32 is sealed against the second receiving plate 26 byits upper ring gaskets 27. The bottom plate 32 comprises two gas outletholes 35 that are located in centered position above the second valveplates 31 of the second check valves 7. The surfaces of the bottom andupper plates 32, 33 that face each other have a special polished finishto let the scent-charged carrier medium flow without hindrance and notadhere to the inner surfaces of the homogenization chamber 8. The heightof the interior space of the homogenization chamber 8 is determined bythe thickness of the seal 34 and is very low as compared to the lengthand width of the system, so that the scent-charged carrier medium can becompletely discharged from the homogenization chamber 8 and thehomogenization chamber 8 can be flushed fast and without remnants byjust a low, unscented carrier media stream when there is a change inclearly distinct scents and all shut-off elements 4 upstream of thestorage containers 1 are closed.

The unscented carrier medium to be conducted to the homogenizationchamber 8 for homogenizing and flushing is supplied via the secondregulating valve 9 and a feed line 36 that runs directly into thehomogenization chamber 8. It absorbs the scent stream from the storagecontainer(s) 1, vortexes it and intermingles with it, dilutes it, anddischarges it fast and without remnants from the homogenization chamber8 so that the system can switch to the next scent without any residualscents prevailing. A discharge line 37 is provided at the outlet of thefeed line 36 on the opposite side of the homogenization chamber throughwhich the scent-charged carrier medium is carried off.

After removing the cover plate 33 that is fastened on the rim of thecarrier medium distributor plate 13 with stud bolts 38, the bottom plate32 and the second (upper) receiving plate 26 can be detached to replacethe storage containers 1 whose scent substrate is used up. Thetube-shaped storage containers 1 are non-positively fixed in mountingholes 40 of a holding plate 39 because of its resilient material; thehole arrangement exactly matches the pattern of recesses 23, 25 in thereceiving plates 20, 26. Furthermore, the holding plate 39 includesholes 41 in which the holding plate 39 is guided to the stud bolt 38.The holding plate 39 makes it possible to replace a complete set ofstorage containers 1 and to mount new storage containers 1 in thepredefined grid. The grid of holes in the holding plate 39 as shown inFIG. 4 or the grid of cylindrical recesses 23 in the bottom receivingplate 20 (FIG. 3) also shows the offset arrangement of the tube-shapedstorage containers 1. This arrangement can house a multitude of storagecontainers 1 in a highly compact space.

1. An apparatus for dosing gaseous and/or vaporous substances withmultiple storage containers that provide gas to be dosed and can beconnected to a carrier medium that flows through it for driving out adefined gas/vapor volume at defined intervals, the apparatus comprisingmultiple storage containers having ends that close automatically againsta direction of flow, inlet sides thereon being connected to a carriermedium manifold that has a controllable shut-off device for carriermedium assigned to each storage container and outlet sides thereon beingconnected to a homogenization chamber, wherein the homogenizationchamber and the carrier medium manifold are independently connected to acarrier medium source, wherein the storage containers are tube-shapedhollow bodies for receiving the substances that form the dosing gas andare closed at both ends by a porous holding element, wherein first andsecond check valves are assigned to each side of the storage containersthat open in the direction of flow when the carrier medium appliespressure and prevent the discharge of dosing gas from the storagecontainer when the shut-off device is closed, and wherein the storagecontainers are sealed and held on both sides in recesses of lower andupper receiving plates, said recesses comprising valve holes for gasentry into the storage containers or the homogenization chamber that canbe closed by flaps of the check valves.
 2. The apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the carrier medium manifold is designed as a flatcarrier medium distributor plate with parallel transverse ducts that areconnected to the carrier medium source via a longitudinal duct, whereineach storage container is connected to the transverse ducts via gaspassages and individually controllable shut-off facilities; wherein thehomogenization chamber is a flat bottom plate with integrated gaspassages; wherein the storage containers are arranged in parallel and atan offset from each other between the carrier medium distributor plateand the homogenization chamber and connected to gas passages.
 3. Theapparatus according to claim 2, wherein the carrier medium distributorplate and the homogenization chamber are equipped with a firstregulating valve and a second regulating valve for separate control ofthe volume flow of the carrier medium.
 4. The apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein a mushroom-shaped seal with an axial hole is locatedbetween the lower receiving plate and the carrier medium distributorplate in the section between the gas passage and the first valve hole, aconical head of which protrudes into a conical recess in the receivingplate and a shaft of which is held in a tapped hole of the carriermedium distributor plate above the gas passage.
 5. The apparatusaccording to claim 1, wherein a multitude of storage containers isarranged on a holding plate comprising mounting holes that elasticallyfix the storage containers and combined into a storage container unit,wherein the mounting holes are on the same axis as the gas passages andthe recesses.
 6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the holdingplate is made of an elastic material.
 7. The apparatus according toclaim 1, wherein the homogenization chamber comprises an inlet for purecarrier medium and an outlet for a mixture of carrier medium and gas tobe dosed and wherein said inlet and outlet are provided on opposite endsof the homogenization chamber.
 8. The apparatus according to claim 7,wherein the interior height of the homogenization chamber is determinedby a seal that runs peripherally along the rims between a bottom plateand a cover plate of the homogenization chamber.
 9. The apparatusaccording to claim 2, wherein stud bolts are placed along the rim of thecarrier medium distributor plate that guide the receiving plates, theholding plate and the bottom and cover plates of the homogenizationchamber while said cover plate is also screwed to them.
 10. Theapparatus according to claim 9, wherein the carrier medium distributorplate is braced with the cover plate of the homogenization chamber usinga clamping device.
 11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein theshut-off facilities and the regulating valves can be controlledaccording to a program.
 12. The apparatus according to claim 1, whereinthe apparatus is located in an area frequented by people to producevarious scents.
 13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein theapparatus is integrated into seating in a movie or dramatic theater orthe like or connected to multiple seats via connecting pipes.
 14. Theapparatus according to claim 3, wherein the shut-off facilities and theregulating valves can be controlled according to a program.